RE: HTML5 Suggested UIs for making title attribute content accessible

I think the TITLE attribute, as useful as it is, wasn't treated consistently by AT -- which is a shame.
For example, the developer should be able to place the TITLE on an HTML list to give it a name which would work just like accessible name property on the desktop. It is, however, questionable whether TITLE should always produce a tooltip. Tooltips are a hindrance with screen magnification software.
I am also not sure if presence of a TITLE attribute should imply the focussability of an element.


From: wai-xtech-request@w3.org [mailto:wai-xtech-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of James Craig
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:29 PM
To: Steven Faulkner
Cc: HTMLWG WG; HTML Accessibility Task Force; W3C WAI-XTECH
Subject: Re: HTML5 Suggested UIs for making title attribute content accessible

On Aug 24, 2010, at 1:44 AM, Steven Faulkner wrote:


Examples of how the title attribute  can be implemented accessibly have been recently added to the HTML5 specification:


"For example, a visual user agent could make elements with a title<http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#the-title-attribute> attribute focusable, and could make any focused element with a title<http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#the-title-attribute> attribute show its tooltip under the element while the element has focus. This would allow a user to tab around the document to find all the advisory text.

As another example, a screen reader could provide an audio cue when reading an element with a tooltip, with an associated key to read the last tooltip for which a cue was played."
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#the-title-attribute-0 (note link to FULL spec, may lead to your browser crashing)

It would also be good to hear from users as to whether these examples would be considered good solutions.

It would be good to hear from browser and AT implementors as to whether these example methods are practical and will be implemented, otherwise they are of little use
VoiceOver on Mac OS X already does this. @title is exposed as AXHelp in the AX API, and by default, VO will speak the element's text equivalent label, pause, then speak "This item has a help tag." A user can have VoiceOver speak the help text using the VO+Shift+H hot key (a.k.a. Control+Option+Shift+H) or the user can configure VoiceOver to speak the help tag automatically: see VoiceOver Utility > Verbosity > Hints.

VoiceOver can also be used to show the native tooltip: see VoiceOver Utility > Navigation > Mouse cursor follows VoiceOver cursor. In this case, the mouse pointer follows the screen reader focus around, so the native mouse hover event is triggered and the tooltip is shown.

Cheers.
James

PS. Steve, I'm not subbed to the HTML list, so if you want this reply posted there, you'll need to forward it or reply all. I included it for the sake of any later reply-alls, but my message is going to bounce from that list.